Putin discusses Ukraine with Russia’s Security Council

Russian President Vladimir Putin had an urgent meeting with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council late on Wednesday, presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reported.

In addition, the president congratulated members of the Security Council on the forthcoming Victory Day.“Participants in the meeting discussed the ongoing matters of international policy,” he said, noting that they had also debated in detail the current situation in Ukraine, including in the context of talks between President Vladimir Putin and Swiss President and Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Didier Burkhalter on the same day.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Chief of Presidential Staff Sergei Ivanov, speakers of both houses of parliament Valentina Matviyenko and Sergei Naryshkin, Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev and his deputy Rashid Nurgaliyev, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov, Foreign Intelligence Service Director Mikhail Fradkov and permanent member of the Russian Security Council Boris Gryzlov participated in the meeting.

The Russian president held talks with OSCE chairperson-in-office in Moscow on Wednesday, May 7. Burkhalter told reporters after the talks that the OSCE would propose a roadmap for the Ukrainian crisis settlement to all four parties, which signed the Geneva accords, soon. The document offers concrete steps including ceasefire, de-escalation of tension, establishment of a dialogue and elections.

“We believe that a direct dialogue between the Kiev authorities and representatives of the South-East of Ukraine is a key instrument for the settlement,” Putin said after talks with Burkhalter. Meanwhile, in his words, the compulsory condition to begin a dialogue is to stop violence with use of armed forces and illegal armed units.To resolve these talks the Russian president appealed to Kiev “to stop immediately all military and punitive operations in the South-East of Ukraine” which are not “a reliable way to settle all domestic political disputes,” but, on the contrary, deteriorate a split.

At the same time Putin stated that Russia asked federalization supporters to delay a referendum from May 11 to a later date to provide conditions for establishing a dialogue.

The Russian leader named presidential elections planned in Kiev as “a movement in the right direction.” “However, they [presidential elections] will settle nothing if all Ukrainian citizens will not understand how their rights will be guaranteed after these presidential elections,” the Russian president added.